Opulence, avarice are out of fashion for a while. Less productive but a much happier state. More consumption of leisure time and less consumption of "stuff." Long travel industry, short pharma and retail related. Perhaps at last American people have realised that they don't need "stuff" or prescription drugs to be happy? Perhaps we work closer to home? Put agricultural farms back in every neighborhood? Take the kids on the bike to buy some fresh milk and eggs even in urban areas? Maybe we stop suffering from "status anxiety."
We won't have to feed Ritalin to our kids for breakfast, nor feed our teens and execs Provigil for dinner, and we can avoid the Prozac when it all goes to crap.

Opulence, avarice are out of fashion for a while. Less productive but a much happier state. More consumption of leisure time and less consumption of "stuff." Long travel industry, short pharma and retail related. Perhaps at last American people have realised that they don't need "stuff" or prescription drugs to be happy? Perhaps we work closer to home? Put agricultural farms back in every neighborhood? Take the kids on the bike to buy some fresh milk and eggs even in urban areas? Maybe we stop suffering from "status anxiety."
We won't have to feed Ritalin to our kids for breakfast, nor feed our teens and execs Provigil for dinner, and we can avoid the Prozac when it all goes to crap.

Nice vision, you are a true optimist. This I think will come to pass, but you realize it will take decades, right? I'm not knocking you at all, I've just been looking at it from a historical perspective, and I really think that's the timeframe. For change at that kind of level, when everything has been running on greed, it takes decades.

Until then, the people at the top try desperately to hold on to what they have, and make life miserable for everyone.

"... Until then, the people at the top try desperately to hold on to what they have, and make life miserable for everyone.

More...

Especially true for government.

Libertad correctly suggests the ONLY hope for America is a TOTAL OVERHAUL of our tax structure and the role of government.... such that tax revenues are as low as possible and their collections are from as wide a tax base as possible... that the USA quickly become "tax and business friendly" so that manufacturers from around the world move to the US and employ American workers.

Short of THAT, we are doomed.

But, the current Administration is RACING in the opposite direction. (Like in "Thelma and Louise"... we're "pedal-to-the-metal", and the cliff is fast approaching.)